* Sergei Kiriyenko, Russia's top civilian nuclear official, urged Iran to comply with the contract terms on the Bushehr nuclear power plant that Russia is building in the south of the Islamic Republic
* TVEL, Russia's leading producer and supplier of nuclear fuel for power plants, said it would deliver fuel for a research reactor in Vietnam in September
* The board of Norilsk Nickel has approved Denis Morozov as a new general director of the world's largest nickel producer, the company said
* The Russian government will review its energy strategy in April to increase the share of nuclear power, hydroelectric and coal industries in power generation, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said
* Colonel-General Yury Solovyov, a senior air defense commander, said:
- The implementation of a new aerospace defense concept, which combines elements of air, missile and space defense will allow Russia to stave off any aggression
- U.S. missile defense deployment in Europe could drag Russia into a new arms race
* Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said the Kovykta gas field in East Siberia operated by TNK-BP could be put up for auction excluding foreign companies if the operator was stripped of the license
* Russia's National Banking Council will approve at its next session the Audit Chamber's decision to check the financial and economic activities of the Central Bank, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said
* Russia's lower house of parliament passed a bill toughening punishment for violations of traffic regulations in the first reading
* Police have seized 11 kilograms of heroin, the biggest haul this year, in Russia's second largest city, a St. Petersburg drug control service said
* A Moscow court ruled former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov must return his elite country house Sosnovka-1 on Moscow outskirts to the government, a RIA Novosti correspondent said
* Russian nuclear equipment export monopoly Atomstroyexport said it had started loading fuel at the second unit of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in eastern China
* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko urged energy cooperation with the European Union, the presidential press office said
* Iran will proceed with its civilian nuclear energy research program despite new possible economic sanctions against the Middle East country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
* Iran has developed a new mobile air defense system capable of launching simultaneously two ground-to-air missiles, state-run television reported
